an opportunity occurred, or so soon as the sentry should have given the
alarm.

At last the weary watch came to an end, for the tramp of the relief was
heard, and Sergeant Lund marched up his little party of men, heard
Gray's report of the rustling noise, and the dark shadow on the river;
said "Humph!" in a gruff way; a fresh man was placed on sentry, and Adam
Gray was marched back with the other tired men who were picked up on the
round into the little fort.

CHAPTER THIRTY ONE.

HOW SOME COULD GO AND SOME MUST STAY.

The day of the tiger-hunt was at last close at hand. A vast deal of
communication and counter communication had taken place with the sultan,
whose people were making great preparations for the event.

The sultan was constantly sending messengers, and asking that stores
might be given him with plenty of ammunition. Not, though, in any mean
begging spirit, for whenever a couple of his chiefs came with some
request, they were accompanied by a train of followers bearing
presents--food, supplies of the finest rice, sugar-cane, and fruit;
buffaloes and poultry; slabs of tin, little bags of gold dust, specimens
of the native work; an abundance, in short, of useful and valuable
things, all of which were accepted; though there was a grim feeling in
the mind of Mr Linton that pretty well everything had been taken by
force, from some of the sultan's miserable subjects.

Still the policy was, to be on the best of terms with the sultan, and to
hope to introduce reforms in his rule by degrees. The resident took the
old school copy-book moral into consideration, that example was better
than precept, and knowing full well that any sweeping code of rules and
regulations would produce distaste, certain hatred, and perhaps a rising
against the English rule, he determined to introduce little improvements
by degrees, each to be, he hoped, tiny seeds from which would grow grand
and substantial trees.

The tiger-hunt was being prepared for evidently with childlike delight,
and instead of its being a few hours' expedition, it proved that it was
to be an affair of a week. Tents were to be taken, huts to be formed,
and quite a large district swept of the dangerous beasts. For as the
sultan informed the English officers, the tigers had been unmolested for
quite two years, and saving one or two taken in pitfalls, they had
escaped almost scot free. The consequence of this was, that several
poor Malays had been car